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Goober Peas
Old-Time Song and Fiddle Tune; Widely known
ARTIST: Bill Hansen- Kingston Trio
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: 1866
RECORDING INFO: Ives, Burl. Burl Ives Sings for Fun, Decca DL 8248, LP (195?), cut#B.03 (Goober Peas); Kingston Trio. Here We Go Again, Capitol T 1258, LP (1959), cut#B.05 (Goober Peas); Kingston Trio (Goober Peas); Leigh, Bonnie. Down in the Shady Grove, Maywind K56-03, CD (1998), cut#17 (Goober Peas); Sandburg, Carl. Flat Rock Ballads, Columbia ML 5339, LP (196?), cut# 11; Thompson, Tommy. Songs of the Civil War, National Geographic Soc. 0789, LP (197?), cut#A.06 (Good Peanuts); New Lost City Ramblers, "Goober Peas" (on NLCREP4);
OTHER NAMES: Eating Goober Peas;
SOURCES: Listed in Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc; RJackson-19CPop, pp. 73-75, "Goober Peas;" Silber-CivWar, pp. 54-55, "Goober Peas" Arnett, p. 82, "Goober Peas;" Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 715, "Eating Goober Peas;" Darling-NAS, p. 351, "Goober Peas," Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 10, "Goober Peas;" Silber-FSWB, p. 276, "Goober Peas"
NOTES: First published in 1866 (with words credited to A. Pindar and music to "P. Nutt"!), one of the all-time great Southern songs to emerge from the War was "Goober Peas," a tribute to the simple joys of eating peanuts. As the conflict dragged on, however, the song took on new meaning for hungry Confederate troops, whose rations frequently consisted of nothing but peanuts. The title appears in musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph's list of Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes. Presumably it was an instrumental version of the popular Confederate Army Civil War song.
LYRICS:
Sittin' by the roadside on a summer's day,
Talkin' with my comrades to pass the time away.
Lying in the shade underneath the trees,
Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas.
Chorus: Peas! Peas! Peas! Peas! Eating goober peas.
Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas. (Repeat)
Just before the battle, the Gen'ral heard a row.
He said, "The Yanks are coming. I hear their rifles now."
He turned around in wonder and what do you think he sees?
The Georgia militia eating goober peas!
(Chorus)
Think my song has lasted almost long enough.
he subject is most interesting but rhymes are mighty rough.
I wish this war was over, when free from rags and fleas,
We'd kiss our wives and sweethearts and then we'd gobble goober peas!
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